Municipalities in Southern Italy Swap Used Cooking Oil for EVOO

Olive grow­ers and pro­duc­ers in the south­ern Italian region of Campania have teamed up with local author­i­ties to pro­mote extra vir­gin olive oil and fos­ter an envi­ron­men­tally-friendly approach to used cook­ing oil dis­posal.

In a series of events announced by the munic­i­pal­ity of Sorrento with the local waste man­age­ment com­pany, res­i­dents are invited to bring their used cook­ing oil to spe­cial areas for proper dis­posal. The more they bring, the more extra vir­gin olive oil the munic­i­pal­ity will reward them in exchange.

The Sorrento penin­sula, which faces the Bay of Naples and Capri island, is the home of some of the region’s most cel­e­brated extra vir­gin olive oils. It is also an incred­i­bly scenic part of the south­west­ern Italian coast­line, attract­ing tourists from all over the world.

Local author­i­ties explained that proper cook­ing oil dis­posal helps main­tain the region’s beauty and bio­di­ver­sity.

“Those res­i­dents that will give over 10 liters of exhausted cook­ing oil will receive a bot­tle of extra vir­gin olive oil,” Luigi Di Prisco, head of the munic­i­pal Council, told the local news­pa­per Il Mattino.

He added that all par­tic­i­pants would also receive a con­tainer to store used cook­ing oil at home before dis­pos­ing of it.

“This is one more way to pro­mote respect for the envi­ron­ment, by reward­ing vir­tu­ous behav­ior,” Di Prisco said.

The Amalfi munic­i­pal­ity announced a sim­i­lar ini­tia­tive. Located on the south­ern shores of the Sorrento penin­sula, it is the heart of the Amalfi coast, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

“We are work­ing to pre­serve our land­scape, artis­tic and cul­tural her­itage and to fos­ter sus­tain­abil­ity which is a key fac­tor of pro­tec­tion and pro­mo­tion,” said coun­cil­woman Ilara Cuomo. ​“All cit­i­zens must enact vir­tu­ous reuse, waste reduc­tion and recy­cle… trig­ger­ing a cir­cu­lar econ­omy that coun­ter­acts the sin­gle-use throw­away cul­ture.”

While not always linked to the dis­tri­b­u­tion of extra vir­gin olive oil, cam­paigns focused on recy­cling exhausted cook­ing oils have been on the rise through­out Italy.

The ran­dom dis­per­sion of used veg­etable oils is con­sid­ered a sig­nif­i­cant envi­ron­men­tal pol­lu­tant and was the focus of a recent national con­fer­ence.

“When used veg­etable oil ends up in our seas, its pol­lu­tion kills marine veg­e­ta­tion,” said Francesco Mancini, pres­i­dent of the national con­sor­tium for the recy­cling of veg­etable and ani­mal oils (CONOE). ​“This hap­pens because it cre­ates a sort of fil­ter on the water sur­face which pre­vents solar rays from reach­ing the sea floor.”

CONOE data show that its recy­cling fig­ures rose from 15,000 tons in 2002 to 76,000 in 2018. Italy pro­duces about 260,000 tons of cook­ing oil each year.

A grow­ing num­ber of com­pa­nies in the pro­duc­tion chain are join­ing the con­sor­tium, which rep­re­sents more than 300,000 mem­bers who use cook­ing oil, such as restau­rants.

Over time, Italians have been find­ing new and cre­ative ways to uti­lize used cook­ing oil. One of these is as fuels for vaporet­tos, tra­di­tional water buses that carry around tourists and res­i­dents in Venice. Since the trial period in 2018, vaporet­tos increas­ingly run on cook­ing oil-derived bio­fu­els.

Treated cook­ing oil is also being incor­po­rated into cos­met­ics, indus­trial soaps, inks, tan­ning greases and car waxes. CONOE esti­mates that almost 90 per­cent of recy­cled cook­ing oil is used as fuel in the coun­try.

• Il Mattino
• Amalfi munic­i­pal­ity
• Il Nuovo Terraglio